Words on the Move
by John McWhorter · first published 2016
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible linguistics explaining how English keeps changing and why that change is normal and rule-governed. Suits general readers curious about language and word meanings.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight it. Language is always changing -- but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether its the use of literally to mean "figuratively" rather than "by the letter" or the way young people use LOL and like or business jargon like Whats the ask? it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes. But the tru
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If you enjoy this article you may enjoy Russ Roberts interview of John McWhorter [0] where they discuss the evolution of language and Johns book "Words on the move" . give it a listen... approx 1 hour (the transcript is there which is also probably faster but I enjoyed the charisma and enthusiasm.) [0] http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/08/john_mcwhorter.html
on “Cripes, a bumbershoot” ↗This morphing of LOL is used as an example in the very interesting and enjoyable book "Words on the Move: Why English Won't – and Can't – Sit Still (Like, Literally)" by John McWhorter. https://bookshop.org/p/books/words-on-the-move-why-english-w...
on “Show HN: A device that only lets you type lol if you've truly laughed out loud” ↗…someone who thought they were clever wrote in a book. Yeah, this is a trigger for me. (: Dr. Geoff Lindsey is a great reference. Another is John McWhorter, specifically his books The Power of Babel and Words on the Move. Linguists are scientists of the natural world, not law-makers.
on “A parliament of owls and a murder of crows: How groups of birds got their names” ↗…narratives to the mainstream, or what McWhorter has called "third wave antiracism." Again, as a "classical liberal," I find their ideas worth considering. --- A side note, I have a copy of McWhorter's book "Words on the Move," and I highly recommend it :)
on “John McWhorter: The Neoracists” ↗…episode of Lexicon Valley, John McWhorter's linguistics podcast, is about how that's not what's happening. http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html He has a whole book about it: _ Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally)_. Check it out. Not only do languages evolve and change over time (and that's not a symptom of everything moving towards some imagined mushy…
on “How long should we cling to a word's original meaning? (2011)” ↗"I hate when words drift in meaning" John McWhorter discusses this as an inevitability with language. (Indeed, he wrote a book with title / subtitle "Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally)"). He discusses various examples of this happening, both in political and non-political contexts. His suggestion is to just accept it, and…
on “Facebook relaxed misinformation rules for conservative pages” ↗John McWhorter: Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally)
on “How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities” ↗Appreciate this; thanks! On the misuse of the word "literally", I wholeheartedly agree with the following reader comment from an excellent EconTalk podcast, "John McWhorter on the Evolution of Language and Words on the Move"[1]: This whole “literally” issue seems to have been mis-framed. The reason many of us object to the use of the word “literally” to mean “figuratively” isn’t that we can’t stand the thought of language…
on “Auto-Antonyms” ↗> If we can’t say that “comprised of” is objectively wrong, then what _can_ we say about English? I haven't read John McWhorter's "Words on the Move", but he addresses this question there, and this review has a summary: https://byfaithweunderstand.com/2017/06/15/review-john-mcwho... - Isolated cases of 'incorrect' usage can be considered 'incorrect'.…
on “Wikipedia users edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”” ↗